Plastic Negotiation Delays in Busan Present Significant Challenges, Expert Says

(Photo : Getty Images/TIMUR MATAHARI / AFP)

In order to combat plastic pollution, the European Union (EU) has issued a warning that other states' delaying tactics will make it very difficult to agree on a new global treaty by the end of this year, as planned.

Delaying Tactics

Virginijus Sinkevičius, the chief of the environment department at the European Commission, stated that the most recent round of plastics negotiations in Ottawa, Canada, in April had succeeded in "moving the text forward despite delaying tactics by countries wanting to lower the ambition."

However, he informed EU member state environment ministers that closing the treaty at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in November would be extremely challenging at the current rate of the talks.

The INC-5, the fifth and ostensibly last round of treaty talks, is scheduled to take place in Busan, South Korea, from November 25 to December 1.

Some experts said that Sinkevičius was correct in what he had claimed and that the Like-Minded Group, which included Saudi Arabia and Russia, was the source of the delaying strategies.

Bethanie Carney Almroth, a professor of ecotoxicology at the University of Gothenburg who follows the negotiation, noted that concluding the treaty in November would present significant challenges.

Every government committed to establishing a treaty by the end of 2024 during the UN Environment Assembly in March 2022. The organizers of the discussions are still hopeful that an agreement can be reached in Busan and that states will formally sign the treaty at a diplomatic meeting a few months later.

Whether the pact should only aim to stop plastic pollution or also set goals to lower the growing production and consumption of plastic that is contributing to the issue is one of the main points of contention. In addition to contaminating the environment, plastic production uses fossil fuels, which increase emissions that warm the earth.

During the Ottawa talks, the governments failed to carry on with formal negotiations over reducing the manufacture of plastics. However, since then, informal discussions have taken place between nations in support of lowering production, and an official conference of an expert group is scheduled for August.

Sinkevičius cautioned that a satisfactory conclusion to the negotiations this year might depend on these expert meetings.

"We need to step up efforts at all levels, including high-level political involvement," before and during the Busan talks, he added.

Plastic Treaty

Sinkevičius informed EU ministers that there were still "major remaining divergences," such as on whether to ban the manufacturing of plastic, without citing specific nations or their stances.

The European Commission stated in a written briefing that several states, "mainly major oil-producing countries," had dragged down the Ottawa negotiations. Similarly, some nations "are in more of a hurry than others," according to Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.

Strong governments have rejected plastic output targets, preferring to concentrate on encouraging recycling and keeping plastic garbage out of the ocean, including Saudi Arabia, India, and Russia. Iran and the US have also attempted to scale back the treaty's goals.

However, a group of nations known as the "Bridge to Busan," of which the EU is a part, is seeking a deal that would limit the manufacturing of plastic. Since plastics are made of oil and gas, the amount of greenhouse gas released during their production is substantial and continues to rise.

According to the EU, disagreements exist on the treaty's degree of detail, legal force, and design of a funding mechanism for governmental initiatives to combat plastic pollution.

Some nations, like those in the Gulf, prefer to channel funding through an established organization like the Global Environment Facility, while others seek to create a new fund specifically for that purpose.